Frieren: Beyond Journey's End (2023)

Frieren: Beyond Journey's End (2023)

Serie: @tuesnaii

Genshin Impact

Lynette: @tuesnaii

I'm legitimately so impressed at how you style the hairs in your hijab cosplays, particularly Sonettos. Every big shape reads so clearly and I cannot comprehend how it was done with (presumably) one sheet of folded cloth.

Thank you! The one who did Sonetto was my mutual in instagram and she used to share hijab tutorial for hijabi cosplayers before she deactivate her account. I didn't know about how she style her Sonetto because she didn't make any tutorial for Sonetto back then, but looking from the result, as you presumed it seems she used one sheet of shawl/pashmina hijab (yes, one sheet of folded cloth but with longer size and different type of cloth compared to mine when I did Vertin).

Just an fyi, we hijabis wear many type of clothes to style our hijab and how the clothes are called might be different depends on the fabric, size of the hijab, and country. In my understanding for example some people from Indonesia might call the hijab that my friend used for Sonetto as pashmina, but maybe some people from Malaysia might call it as shawl (cmiiw hijabis 🙏)

YOOOOO YOUR COSPLAY IS SO COOL AKDHALSVZKANZKA

Thank you!! Wow, so happy to know people like my cosplay 😆🫶

Who-ya Extended / THE FIRST TAKE MUSIC (Podcast) Translation

Hello. This is the translation that I made for THE FIRST TAKE’s podcast featuring Who-ya Extended. I’m a fan of Who-ya Extended and couldn’t find the translation so I decided to make it one for people who need it. Hopefully, this is helpful enough. Enjoy!

Here is the link of the original video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QBTokk7dHC8 (The interview started on 1:39)

Interviewer        : Let’s jump straight into the point, THE FIRST TAKE has a different ambiance with live performance and recording, how was the take with THE FIRST TAKE?

Who-ya               : Right. I don’t really do recording or live performance but, compared to those activities, it was really hard. How to say it, maybe this is too ordinary to say but, it was fresh. I think it was a fresh thing to do.

Interviewer        : Was there any different feelings when you did the take with the all-white set?

Who-ya                : From the very beginning of joining THE FIRST TAKE itself, well around the time I did the take, I was really, what is it, um, is it okay if I call it white wall? I didn’t know what it would look like to sing in the white set. I was shown a short sample video, wasn’t I? At that time I was like “Wah! I know THE FIRST TAKE”. That was the point of view of me as the viewer and then after that, on the contrary when I had to sing there I was like “Okay now I get the nervous,”. After that, when I saw other artists showing up on THE FIRST TAKE, weirdly I don’t feel nervous anymore. Yes, that was how I felt.

Interviewer        : Then, I would like to ask about your song. This time, the first song to be performed was the one that has been released in February this year “VIVID VICE”. I know this song is the opening theme song for the popular anime “Jujutsu Kaisen”, but how was the production of this song?

Who-ya                : Um, first when there was a talk to make the opening song for “Jujutsu Kaisen” and when it comes to Jujutsu Kaisen, I’m actually a number one fan, a big fan of the original work. That’s why I tried to focus on the charm of this work, ‘the curse’. I can’t see curse either lol but ‘curse’, how do I say it,.. while making a theme that is beyond our mundane life, how the characters here are doing their best on the battlefield, trying to live their life, how the main characters developed through the troubles they had gone through, that felt really human. I like the story that focused on humanlike feelings, that’s why when there was a talk to do the opening song, I tried to express the humanlike feelings through the music and lyrics and made this song. Last year we were also, not just us, but isn’t all over the world have changed so much? We debuted and then three months after that everything changed. Of course, there were some things that not supposed to happen, and a lot of things didn’t work as it supposed to be, but within that time there were a lot of words that were made, and through those troubles and regrets I could project the awesomeness of “Jujutsu Kaisen” characters. I think I made this song as the expression of the least shape of opportunistic.

Interviewer        : During the take for THE FIRST TAKE, the guitar and the drum part changed into acoustic performance. How was the process of this arrangement?

Who-ya                : I think THE FIRST TAKE is really fresh stuff, it was like making the version something we never saw before. I think the arrangement for “VIVID VICE” is interesting, isn’t it? Both for people who already listened to this song and listen to it again and for the people who listen to this song for the first time.

Interviewer        : The second song we are going to talk about is the one that was released in 2019, “Q-Vism”. As Who-ya Extended’s major debut song, I think this song is memorable but, is there something that you became aware of when you perform?

Who-ya                : Of course, as the debut song it was the most—well I’m not sure whether it’s correct or not to say it’s the most (memorable) –especially whether I’m ready or not to take this song with different emotional attachment than the others but, maybe when we continued our activities, made a lot of songs and performed those songs, (“Q-Vism”) rather than being the special one because it was the debut song, even for people who know it is just like one of the songs, for the people who listen to this song, maybe they sometimes think it would be a different one than the original one because I missed some parts when I performed. It would be exaggerating if I said I passed the past but I am really aware of those things whenever I perform.

Interviewer        : How was the performance with THE FIRST TAKE?

Who-ya                : Well, how do I say it, it’s hard to mark one’s own test but, after I performed “Q-vism” as a song and think about it, this stage as THE FIRST TAKE, singing “Q-vism” as the song, I think I did a performance where people who listen to this song to feel and get the meaning (of this song).

Interviewer        : Who-ya is the only member who doesn’t change to another unit. This time, are these songs were made in separate productions?

Who-ya                : The image of each songs, each songs have their own signatures, their own digital sound. “Q-Vism” and the raw version of “VIVID VICE” maybe have their own face but, to get the anime’s topic involved and pull it out while making the songs, to challenge it in order to make it get along with our vision, each unit share their thoughts and step by step we construct it into a shape of song. There was different approachments as well but the core consistently never changed.

Interviewer        : Who-ya’s key visual was drawn in illustration but when people see your real appearance during your performance, I think there are plenty of people out there who were surprised by that. How was the respond of the people who saw your real appearance?

Who-ya                : There is no official record about this but there was an event back then in January when I introduced myself as "Who-ya”. At that time, if I think about it again, I was told it was noisy at that time. There were a lot of people who said “I thought you were this kind of person”. There is actually the jacket of the album and the official illustration as well (for Who-ya). I wrecked the image that were imagined by those people by being a whole different person and I feel sorry about that lol. But, that’s the funny part. Nowadays, there are so many people who accept me the way I am and I am grateful for that.  

Interviewer        : By the way, by showing up in THE FIRST TAKE this time, how was the reaction of the people around you?

Who-ya                : I didn’t tell them. Well, it’s not like there is a special reason behind this but THE FIRST TAKE is a special existence for the people who love music. That’s why when I got the chance, not even for my friends who like music—we play music together back then—know that I would appear here and when they knew they were surprised and were like “Eh?!”. I don’t want to surprise the people around me who know THE FIRST TAKE so I didn’t tell anyone.  

Interviewer        : Is there any behind the scene story from THE FIRST TAKE? If yes, please tell us

Who-ya                : I don’t know whether this is included as the inside story or not but, on THE FIRST TAKE channel there is a thumbnail using the photo of me that was taken in the studio. I swear that was the first time in my life doing that. Okay this is not the inside story but, when I did the photoshoot I was like “I couldn’t do this” and the cameraman was like “Nice! Awesome! You’re doing great!”, and then time flew and at that time it was so hot and hard day to go through. I don’t know-how but the results were so cool and I thought “professionals are awesome”. There was various staff there and I felt like I had a great time being together with the professionals. That’s it my inside story which is not really an inside story.

Interviewer        : Last but not least, is there any words for the listener of this podcast and your fans?

Who-ya                : Yes. Thank you so much for always listening to Who-ya Extended’s music. Being able to appear in THE FIRST TAKE feels like taking the game to the next step for me. I wonder if my voice sounds different when I performed here so, for the people who like this kind of way, for the people who keep supporting me up until this day, I’m looking forward to being able to work more in the future. That’s it, please enjoy the performances as well.

Interviewer        : Who-ya Extended, thank you so much!

Translated by Moi (@corvusnacht on twitter)

Reverse 1999

Vertin: @tuesnaii

Zenless Zone Zero

Anby Demara: @tuesnaii

Reverse 1999

Vertin: @tuesnaii

Sonetto: @komitrueself on instagram

“Golden Age”

Japan’s history and explanation of “The Golden Age”

I just realized I ever made this simple explanation of the Heian period, Onmyoudo, and the modern adaptation of that stuff. I made this last year and ever posted it on Twitter. I took Japanese literature during my college time but was not really good at this kind of stuff (I was more focused on literature rather than the culture), but I would like to share what I know. Let me know if there is any mistake you found here and don’t be scared to correct me if I’m wrong. Thank you. 

Starting in the 6th century, in East Asia, things also happened there and one of them was the influence of faith and religion. Confucianism from China and Buddhism from India started influencing Japanese society during that time. Back then, the government of Japan was ruled by aristocrats.  No longer after that, during the 7th century, a lot of scholars and monks were sent to China to study. At the same time during the end of the 7th century, Japan began to know the terms Tennou (天王) and Nihon (日本). 

The highlight of this explanation is the Nara and Heian periods. 

Nara period (710-784) was the era where everything was still heavily influenced by the Chinese. The capital during that time was located in Nara and the capital was modeled on the Chinese T’ang dynasty. The Chinese language was intensively studied, in most of the government documents were using Chinese. During that time, some characters were also adapted to Japanese. Japan also copied Chinese manuscripts (especially about Buddhism). 

The grand results during this era were Japan’s well-known storybooks: Kojiki (古事記) and Nihon Shoki (日本書紀). Manyoushuu (万葉集), the famous Japanese native poetry anthology was also written during this era. 

Moving on to Heian, this is the special era that became the title of this simple explanation.

The Heian period (794-1185) was the era when Japan started to become its real self. The Heian period started when the capital was moved from Nara to Kyoto. Even though the Imperial House seemingly hold power on the surface, behind them, the Fujiwara clan is controlling the government. Japanese culture was also born during this era (building, clothing, paintings). Japan also started to establish its own characters in its language (kanji, hiragana, and katakana).

The famous literary work that was born during this era was The Tale of Genji (源氏物語) by Murasaki Shikibu. It is also said that this work was the oldest novel in the world. Another work that is worth knowing is Konjaku Monogatari (今昔物語), the collected stories of folklore and Buddhism related stories. A lot of them are about the encounter between human and spiritual beings. For example, tales of encounters with Hyakki Yakou ( 百鬼夜行 ) or Night of Hundred Demons, tengu, or various other obake.

Back to the history books that were mentioned before, I’d like to talk a little bit about it. The first is the Kojiki. It is also said as the “Record of Ancient Matters”. Kojiki is considered the sacred text of the Shinto religion. It consists of myths, legends, and historical accounts from the earliest days of creation up to the reign of Empress Suiko (628). It became the source for ceremonies, customs, divination, and magical practices of ancient Japan. 

Next, Nihon Shoki (日本書紀). It is also known as Nihon gi. This work is considered the “official history of Japan”. It consists of 30 chapters that conclude with myths, and legends of ancient Japan, and is also an important source of Shinto. The late chapters that start from the 5th century and so on talk about several powerful clans as well as imperial families. 

Another stuff that I want to talk about here is Onmyoudo （陰陽道).

Onmyoudo is the Japanese traditional esoteric cosmology, a mixture of natural science and occultism. It is also called  “the way of yin and yang”. It was influenced by Taoism, Confucianism, and Buddhism. At first, this Onmyoudo wasn’t considered a religion, but in the 5th-6th century and also late 7th century, it finally became an independent faith. In the 9th century, Onmyoudou interacted with Shinto and Goryou and then developed a new unique system in Japan. It is also becoming the latest hit in the Heian period because during this era everyone believes that most phenomena are caused by spiritual-related things.  The activities in Onmyoudou include astronomy, calendar-making, the reckoning of time, divination, observing nature, and fortune-telling. During the Heian period, the activities that were held were a little bit more religious services such as warding off evil for preventing natural disasters and epidemics (and for the productiveness of grain), as well as curses against opponents. 

Then, we have Onmyouji, the person who does Onmyoudou professionally. You can say they are the practitioner of Onmyoudou. Back then, Onmyouji was an actual official position in the Bureau of Onmyou. They were recognized by society and the government as legal jobs. People at that time also believed that they could summon and control shikigami. Some of the notable onmyouji was Kamo no Yasunori, Abe no Seimei, Ashiya Douman, Kamo no Tadayuki, and Haruo Tsuchimikado.

From what I know, here are the simple differences between Onmyouji and Jujutsushi. They are somewhat similar to each other and I think they only have slight differences, not that much. 

Nowadays, we can still see some of the modern adaptations of literary works actually adapting the stories about stuff I explained before. Here I made a list of the modern adaptation (anime) that used the stories related to Onmyouji or Jujutsushi. Personally, I really like Jujutsu Kaisen. There is actually a continuation of this presentation but I think I’m not going to talk about it now. That’s it. That’s all I know. Hopefully, it could be a simple guide for you guys who is interested in Onmyouji-related stuff or just as extra knowledge. Thank you for reading!

Hasegawa Ikumi and Shouya Chiba in 86 -エイティシックス - 1st Anniversary Operation (2022.04.10/夜)

Hello. This is the translation of Shouya Chiba's speech (and a little bit of Hasegawa Ikumi’s san as well) during the 86 - エイティシックス / eighty six - 1st anniversary Operation (April 10th 2022/night). I already posted it in my livejournal but decided to put this translation here as well. I only translated some of Hasegawa Ikumi’s speech and mainly focused on Shouya Chiba’s speech (because he cried and I think that was such a precious moment), not the full event.  A friend of mine use my translation and add it to the video, you can check it out here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1e2Ps5nEvJHl1o_XMM2pSVctC0GcH9i_t/view

And here is the raw translation of it. 

Hasegawa Ikumi-san:  I’m really happy. I could work with awesome cast, and the staff here.. I’m surrounded by great staff. Also, I could work with a great vibe like this, and for having me involved in this project... Ah, what should I say, it’s like this kind of fortunate that would not come twice. I had a great time. Thank you so much for supporting “86 -eighty-six-” (anime) up until now. There is also the original work (light novel) as well so from now to be able once more to believe in Lena, Shin, and everyone.. and see their dream, I would like to spend another chance like that in the future. When that time comes, it would be a pleasure for me if we could gather again in the future and fight together again. Thank you so much for today.

Shouya Chiba-san:  I’m the voice actor of Shinei Nouzen, Shouya Chiba. Um... Being cast and being able to work as the heroine in this project, being able to deliver all of those work (cried). Uh,.. to do this one-season project seriously, to be allowed to do it is such (an honor). Maybe because everyone told me, how do I say, I think Shin is.. he seems to be completely unconcerned about himself, what kind of person he is, he doesn’t know much about himself but, it's really something to see him being able to meet everyone in Spearhead, being able to meet Lena, being able to meet everyone who told him “you are truly kind” while believing on him.

Also, while doing it, I wonder whether Shin will get his answer for (the purpose of) his life.. whether it’s because everyone is trying their best to live their life or because Shin is letting people around him live their life. That’s why, when that time comes I think... Well, maybe saying Shin is the heroine sounds wrong because I think everyone is the heroine here. And when I met everyone in the cast, everyone who made this project happen, and also everyone who is involved in this project, gladly from the bottom of my heart I could say this is such a fortune for me. Um, well as an actor I think what I’m going to say is kind of unfair but (thanks to this project), I could meet a lot of important people in my life and there are important people around Shin as well, and that is such progress.

That’s why I believe when I took the role as Shin, all the things that I did was thanks to the others, thanks to the viewers. I’m grateful that I listened to the other characters as well for this. Thank you very much.

Hee… It’s going to be lonely isn’t, it? Right? The usual recording place for 86 is going to be gone, the thought of cannot be able to meet the others again, I can’t help thinking of being lonely. What are we going to do? Hmm, the only way is no other than keep continue the project, right? Seriously…  

Hasegawa Ikumi-san: Right

Shouya Chiba-san:  No, seriously. I think it was really hard to make this kind of work, like before we were told “you are going to play this character, this is the script”, seriously there were a lot of people even in their sleep they keep thinking about cut this and cut that, cried most of the time and while having dark memories like that they keep making this work. But I couldn’t say that we could continue it because I know I’m talking to all the people here and the people who watch the streaming for this event. But, deep in my heart, I would like to see the new view, the place that Shin wanted to show to Lena, so if there is any chance to do it, I’d be very happy if all of us truly hoping to make it happen. I’m sorry, it became so long. Thank you very much. Once more I’m sorry. But it’s better to be told, right?

Hasegawa Ikumi-san:  Hee.. Don’t cry!

Shouya Chiba-san:  You got me 

(And the rest of the conversations were just them joking around and saying thank you)

Translated by: moi (@corvusnacht on twitter)